Andy Summers/Ben Venlery-First You Build А Cloud...
Repertoire Records
Summers has taken a while to find his solo guitar voice, but give the bloke credit, he's taken on projects that reveal no little musical ambition. This collaboration with maverick classical guitarist Verdery bears intriguing comparison to current John Etheridge/John Williams outings, although if you have to pitch it in a niche, its nearer the rock end of the spectrum than even summers' own jazz work outs, like his overreaching Mingus project. First You Build A Cloud is a series of improvisations and meditations rather than through-written compositions, so, accounting for the risks involved in such a process, its no surprise this is a hit and miss affair. Verdery tends to lay down a series of arpeggiated lines and chordal progressions rather than melodies. Against this Summers reacts with textures, rhythms and soundscapes rather than solos. When he does solo, its often with extreme distortion. Sometimes this works - his Stuka dive into `Fez', for example, vividly hits home, coming in on top of the acoustic guitar with all the furore that Renbourne's sudden blitzkrieg's on fuzz guitar would bring to the idyllic calm of a Pentangle concert. Other times the overladen effects add up to little more than fuss and bluster - Summers has never been the happiest of `soloists' as some of his live `jazz' performances attest - but the best tracks are the simplest, like the dark re-visiting of `Bring On The Night, or the bottleneck against harmonics of the quirky 'Stone Town'. Guitarists of various genres, from jazz through rock and classical, will find this outing fascinating as much for its flaws as its high points.
Andy Robson
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